All about High Dynamic Range

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The line between movies and game just blurred a lot today. Game engines are getting more powerful very quickly. This Unreal Engine 5.0 demo running on Playstation 5 is amazing. Nanite and Lumin look like great additions for game developers. Congratulations to Epic Games! I can’t wait for the first game to use this technology.

Amazon announced there latest new Fire TV hardware and this included a new 4K Fire TV Stick that sells for $50. I has the latest HDR technology with Dolby Vision and includes support for Dolby Atmos sound.

Paul Debevec is among the honorees to be included at the Annual SMPTE Awards Gala. On October 26, 2017 SMPTE, the Society Of Motion Picture And Television Engineers will honor Paul Debevec with the SMPTE Progress Medal for his contributions to visual effects technology. Paul Debevec’s work enables studios to reproduce real-world lighting condition. Paul Debevec is known for his development of high dynamic range photography. He pioneered the use of HDR light-probes to recover lighting from real environments. This technology adds to the realism of modern visual effects. His work is used in virtually every movie and television show that includes photo-realistic lighting. Debevec is currently adjunct professor at University Of Southern California’s Institute For Creative Technologies and Senior Staff Engineer at Google VR. Find out more about Paul Debevec’s work here: http://www.pauldebevec.com/

Panasonic sensor technology research shows they are developing sensors for future products that have the capability to capture high dynamic range images in a single exposure. This will make is possible to have cameras using a global shutter with an incredibly wide dynamic range.

Here’s a link to more information regarding the research from Panasonics. Much of the document is in Japanese but it is well illustrated and parts are in English so some may find it interesting. Panasonic.com

This promises to bring increased quality to a range of camera products. Let’s hope that it happens soon.

“Today we are adding support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) videos on YouTube.” – YouTube.com, November 7, 2016

Youtube.com has added HDR support for new videos. Any YouTube creator can now upload videos that use HDR format. Some currently supported devices include the new ChromeCast Ultra and YouTube capable streaming devices such and some smart TV’s. Additional device support is expected in the near future for game consoles and other devices. All HDR videos are backward compatible with legacy devices. The number of devices that support HDR video playback is expected to grow rapidly. Here are Instructions for uploading HDR video to YouTube.com/HDR. Current support for HDR encoded videos include 10 bit H.264 MOV, MP4, and MKV.

There are several content producers that have begun uploading videos that use the high quality HDR option.

The new Google Chromecast Ultra supports 4K and Dolby Vision. It comes with an Ethernet port built into the provided power supply for more reliable high bandwidth video streaming. This wired port power supply is also available as a separate purchase for the current Chromecast. Buy for $15 @ google.com

Google’s Chromecast Ultra launch video:

The new Chromecast will cost $69 and is available in November. The current Chromecast 2 is available for $35 and can be found for less on sale.
More details @ google.com